The American Hospital Association, through its subsidiary AHA Solutions Inc., has announced its endorsement of EXTENSION HealthID. HealthID is a smart card that holds individual patient data for use by the hospitals to improve the care experience. The AHA’s endorsement of HealthID comes at a time when maintaining and accessing accurate patient information is becoming increasingly important.
HealthID is a pre-packaged solution consisting of an EXTENSION rack-mounted appliance, smart cards and card reader. The system is designed to simplify implementation with the hospital’s existing scheduling, registration, clinical and financial systems. A Web-based interface enables hospitals to improve operational processes, such as patient registration, discharge and billing, which can reduce the number of delayed or denied claims.
Smart cards store medical and demographic information, creating a portable, secure record unique to each patient. Health care providers and emergency responders who are not connected to the network also can securely access patient information through a downloadable Web-based card reader. Future use of the HealthID could include authentication and data sharing with personal health records systems such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault.
While smart card technology is relatively new in the U.S., HealthID has been used with Mt. Sinai in New York, helping them capture more patient information at the point of registration, streamline billing, eliminating record duplication and errors, and creating better patient experiences. The center anticipates adding clinical information to the cards, enabling providers at off-site locations to quickly and easily access patient data. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/digitalidnews-4.gif)
